Power Versus Force
The soldier can be trained so that
he pulls the trigger without thinking,
"decreasing the time between acquiring
and engaging the target," the study says.
--Study Urges Using Neuroscience
To Improve Soldiers' Performance , WaPo
________________
Rob the Taxi Driver and Vietnam Vet and local coffee shop denizen engaged Ranger in a discussion yesterday in the power versus force dynamic at play in current Counterinsurgency operations.
It was Rob's contention that COIN fails as an ideology, tactic and strategy because its practitioners fail to leverage the distinction between power and force (P/F). The Department of Defense is filled to the gills with force. U.S. Army Infantry and Armor divisions define the word force, which is as it should be.
We force the enemy to our will by the application of death and destruction. Yet force is not the factor correctly employed in a COIN environment. Ranger will discuss COIN, even though he doubts the validity of any U.S. insurgency intervention, unless it's in the homeland.
In contrast to force is Power. Power is the product of any democracy that is healthy, growing and vibrant; power is positive and constructive.
The application of power should precede force, and force is not the necessary end game of a power engagement.
Labels: COIN. counterinsurgency, phony war on terror, power versus force, PWOT
posted by rangeragainstwar at 5:50 PM
8 Comments:
Ranger,
I must confess something, and this is not a slam against you because in truth I agree with you...but the sloganeering...I hate it.
It truly, unequivocally irritates me to no end.
A friend in my church has such stickers on his car...I want to peel them off, paint included, and burn them right in the middle of the parking lot.
His son is a Marine, and though I can appreciate the fact that they have completely gone 180 in their support for him (they had asked me to talk him out of joining, but I could see in his eyes that he had already signed the papers in his heart)
But to the extent to which they have gone...it is too much.
Those slogans leave no room for discussion, and consign disagreement as treasonous, or at the bare minimum...less than patriotic in one's concern for our soldiers welfare.
Sorry, it's just a sore spot with me.
Tell me more about sloganeering, Sheerahkahn.
Do you see us as sloganeering?
(I remember you discussing this young marine in the past, BTB.)
No, no, not you sloganeering...that Marine Poster..."when you absolutely..." type, you know, the ones we see on bumper stickers and such.
I hate those things...other ones like "one shot, one kill" just annoy me to no end.
/sigh
They remind me of so many things, Lisa, and all of them bad.
It's not you or Jim sloganeering, it's our culture...oh hell, never mind me...I'm just getting old and crotchety.
My apologies for any confusion I have made of this.
Sheerah,
No apologies needed. I would be interested to hear what other bad things this sticker brings to mind.
Surely you know by now I am deeply steeped in the art of sarcasm (though my execution is not always finessed.)
You'd not find that one on my car. . . but I think you know that :)
I think that the question is more comprehensible when you stand it on its head; what generates, directs and moderates the application of force?
If the force is the product of legitimate power, that is, the power of a rational society, one that is cohesive, even unified, that has a broad perspective and can identify its own best (and worst) interests, then the force generated is usually effective, its actions beneficial to the society that supports it, and it is difficult to bend against its authority.
Force generated by an irrational, fragmented, often by dictatorial or imperial societies, however, is very prone to misuse, either towards external adventures that produce no benefit for the society as a whole (though they may well profit elements within the society) or in internal coercion inimical to the rational and beneficial function of the society.
Legitimate, rational, broadly supported social and political power usually generates force that is composed of and employed for the general good of the polity.
Force that comes from the projection of power raised by fear, haste, the deception of the polity through lies and manipulation - as the current GWOT seems to have been - is VERY likely to produce little or no benefit to the society/polity that produced it and VERY likely to turn in the hands of its employers to their own detriment.
Ironically, I was thinking along these lines because of the amount of time I've been spending with my son, who dotes on the "Star Wars, the Clone Wars" universe.
The subtext of the whole magilla (as crude and badly done as a George Lucas project can be; perfect for a 6-year-old) is that the entire "Clone War" was a put-up job engineered by the dark lord of the Sith to take over the whole nutroll and become emperor.
While I don't see Darth Cheney as Emperor Palpatine, I would just comment that sane, sensible, well-run empires understand that fighting pointless, hard-to-win wars in distant dominions is a mug's game. Just as in the Star Wars stories, this foolishness just strengthens the worst elements in the imperial society, consumes resources used better elsewhere, does not destroy the external enemies (not to mention creating new ones) while performing the valuable service of natural selection, vacuuming the stupid and reckless out of the shallow end of the enemy gene pool. Eventually, if pursued long and hard enough, this sort of imperial overstretch exhausts and enervates the imperial society and can cause internal collapse long before the external enemies can assemble the force to overcome the imperium from the outside.
Nope, well-run empires reserve their armed force for the occasional hammer-blow of external defense, conquest or retribution, while dealing with minor and low-lethality threats through an adept combination of intelligence, bribery, threats, coercion and diplomacy.
I'll let you figure out which one we're looking more like today...
FDChief,
Force that comes from the projection of power raised by fear, haste, the deception of the polity through lies and manipulation - as the current GWOT seems to have been - is VERY likely to produce little or no benefit to the society/polity that produced it and VERY likely to turn in the hands of its employers to their own detriment.
Chief,Lisa always tells me that I need to be more direct and less squishy. So in that vein I would recommend that you drop THE SEEMS from your sentence. This makes it much more to the point. Just a little word makes your observation too soft. You're giving them wiggle room.
Tighten up-your EER is coming up.
jim
sheerahkhan,
All I can say to your comment is-RLTW.
jim
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